A new report by the New York-based Bible Society ranks major U.S. cities by residents' attitudes about the Christian Bible and how often they read it.

Dallas, at No. 27, was the highest ranking Texas city, followed by San Antonio at No. 33.

It was the first time in the society's nearly 200-year history that it has done this type of survey, said spokesman Geof Morin.

"We'll be doing it again next year, based on the interest," said Morin, who spent much of Wednesday in interviews.

"This raises lots of conversation for folks," he said. "What does it mean to be Bible-minded? What does the Bible mean for people?"

In a telephone and online survey of 42,850 respondents, the survey asked a number of questions about people's opinions about the Bible and whether they had read it in the seven previous days, Morin said.

The most Bible-minded city was Knoxville, Tenn., followed by Shreveport, La., and Chattanooga, Tenn.

Each city's rank was an aggregated figure representing a combination of questions, Morin said.

Among the study's surprises, he said, was that the traditional Bible belt, including Houston, was not at the top of the list.

Among Morin's favorite results was that Las Vegas, sometimes known as Sin City, avoided being in the bottom set of 10 cities. At No. 86, Las Vegas was 11th from the bottom.

Another finding that Morin found interesting was that cities with large Christian ministries, such as Colorado Springs, Colo., and Atlanta, didn't make the top of the list.

"They didn't crack the top quartile," he said.

One characteristic marking the top quartile was that all the cities had relatively small populations.

The 96 cities on the list represented Designated Market Areas, geographic areas used by Nielsen Media Research in its studies of media use.

Of the top 25 Bible-minded markets, only three had a population of more than 1 million households: Charlotte, N.C., Nashville, Tenn., and Raleigh/Durham, N.C., the Bible Society said in a news release.